Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, Senator Carr. I refer to the minister’s previous answers today and his dogged refusal to acknowledge the severe cost of axing Commercial Ready to individual innovators right around the country. Is the minister saying that one of Australia’s most distinguished scientists, Sir Gustav Nossal, was wrong when he described the axing of Commercial Ready as ‘short-sighted’ and that Mr David Henderson of UniQuest, the company who commercialised the anticancer drug, Gardasil, was wrong when he warned that we will see ‘less Australian techs moving into the marketplace’ and that the CEO of Cochlear, the bionic ear company, was also wrong when he said that the decision was ‘the saddest and dumbest decision of the entire budget’?

Kim Carr (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The budget that was delivered on 13 May included the abolition of the Commercial Ready program. The program was closed effectively as of 28 April. What the government has indicated is that current grants that have already been approved will of course be paid and be honoured. There will also be the retention of the regional Commercial Ready offices. However, the decision has seen a savings to the budget of some $547 million over four years. The Commercial Ready funding of $160 million over three years has been offset against the Clean Business Australia program. The total saving as to Commercial Ready in the budget papers therefore needs to be measured against the new programs that the government has initiated.

The government, as I say, will continue to meet its ongoing contractual obligations, so claims to the contrary are simply untrue. What needs to be appreciated is that there will be a number of new programs which the government is initiating, such as Enterprise Connect, a $251 million network which is a key part of the government’s innovation policy. It is designed to ensure that small and medium sized businesses have greater access to new ideas, new knowledge and new technologies that they are not currently accessing. Of course, business will be able to apply this knowledge and these new technologies to build their internal capacity, which will help them to become more innovative, more efficient and more competitive and to lift their productivity right across Australia. There are a number of other programs that the government has initiated, but it should not be forgotten that existing support for venture capital, through the IF funds in supporting early-stage developments, cannot be overlooked in this context nor can the existing programs that are operating, such as the Commercialising Emerging Technologies program, the COMET program.

The COMET program is a competitive, merit-based program that supports early growth and spin-off companies to successfully commercialise their innovations, so the claims that are being made by the opposition need to be measured against the facts. They need to be measured against what the government is actually doing as distinct from what the opposition would like to believe that it is doing. The Comet program is $170 million program which runs to 2011. What you have here is a series of measures that the government is initiating. In fact, the Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research have the better part of a billion dollars worth of new programs, ranging from commercialisation initiatives through to research training and research infrastructure. Of course, this is a part of the agenda that the opposition has enormous difficulty coming to grips with because it failed to grasp the breadth of the government’s approach. I think finally we need to draw to the—

Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I rise on a point of order. My question was not about the coalition’s approach but in fact the comments by such distinguished Australians as Sir Gustav Nossal and also the CEO of Cochlear who described this decision as ‘the saddest and dumbest decision out of the whole budget’.

Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Conroy interjecting—

Alan Ferguson (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I do not need advice, Senator Conroy. I would remind Senator Carr of the question.

Kim Carr (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I think I have been answering the question quite directly and quite specifically. What we have here is an opposition that has failed to grasp the fundamentals of the need for a national innovation strategy. We have an opposition here that has been stuck in the past. We have a government that has actually committed to an innovation revolution in this country. We have an opposition that is out of touch and way out of time, and fails to understand the fundamentals of this whole policy agenda. What we have here is an opportunity, an opportunity for the opposition to come forward and support the government in its bid to see a fundamental shift in the culture of innovation that this country so desperately needs. I look forward to the opposition’s support for the national innovation review report, which is due in a little over a month.

Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. If the minister will not listen to Sir Gustav Nossal or UniQuest or Cochlear, will he at least listen to his former colleague and former Labor senator and science minister, Chris Schacht, who said recently in a letter to me:

The loss of these grand schemes will have a significant long-term negative impact on the Australian biotechnology industry.

Will the minister today commit to immediately reinstating the Commercial Ready program and will he apologise to Sir Gustav Nossal for his dismissive approach to his very well considered comments?

Kim Carr (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I have always thought that Senator Schacht had a lot to contribute to public debate and now that I find out he is communicating with the opposition on these things, I think we are obviously in very good shape indeed. I raise the issue of the failure of the previous government to fulfil its responsibilities to this nation. We had a situation over the 11-odd years of the previous government’s regime where our position slipped dramatically by international standards. No matter what measure you looked at, there was clear evidence that the previous government neglected its responsibilities when it came to the national innovation agenda. That is why we have instituted the national innovation review. We understand that Australia was one of the only OECD countries with a total level of public support for innovation which actually declined. Other countries, our competitors, saw it increase quite dramatically. That is what— (Time expired)